1. Field of the Art
The present invention relates in general to a lens treating device for treating a contact lens or lenses, for instance, cleaning, disinfecting, sterilizing or storing the contact lenses. More particularly, the invention is concerned with such a lens treating device which is easy to handle and is effective to prevent the lenses from being damaged or lost, and which is hygienically excellent and is available at a reduced cost. The present invention is also concerned with a method of treating contact lenses by using such a lens treating device.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Generally, after contact lenses for rectifying one's eyesight are removed from human eyes, the lenses need to be treated in suitable sequence, that is, cleaned, rinsed and stored, whether the lenses are hard or soft contact lenses. As for the soft contact lenses, it is necessary to boil the lenses on a regular basis for the purpose of disinfection.
More specifically, there is a need to clean the contact lenses so as to remove therefrom organic substances contained in tears, such as lipid, protein or glucide, and inorganic substances such as calcium or magnesium, which attach or adhere to the lenses during use. Various methods are known for cleaning the contact lenses. For example, a contact lens is rubbed with one's forefinger and thumb with the lens gripped therebetween. Alternatively, a contact lens may be put on a palm of one hand and rubbed by the forefinger of the other hand, while being pressed by the forefinger against the palm. There is also known a method of cleaning a soft contact lens, in which the contact lens is moved with one's forefinger on an exclusive cleaning puff so that the lens is rubbed against the puff. However, any of the above-described known methods is not free from possibilities of damaging or losing contact lenses during the cleaning operation. These methods also suffer from a problem that the contact lens is soiled by stained hands while the lens is cleaned by using the hands.
To solve the above-described problems, it is proposed to use an exclusive cleaning container which contains a cleaning liquid, so as to clean contact lenses accommodated in the container by shaking the container. An example of such a container is disclosed in laid-open publication No. 63-96533 of unexamined Japanese Utility Model Application.
More specifically described, the cleaning container disclosed in the publication has two lens holders which are supported by the container such that the holders may be rotated and moved up and down in the longitudinal direction of the container by a given small distance. In operation, a pair of contact lenses are received in the respective lens holders, and a suitable cleaning liquid is poured into the container. In this condition, the container is shaked up and down directly with one's hand, so that the lens holders are rotated and moved up and down in the container. Thus, the contact lenses held by the holders are cleaned. Each lens holder is supported by two rods fixed to the holder, each of the rods having at one end a ball which is rotated within and moved along a slot formed within the container. The rotary and linear movements of the ball permit the lens holders to be rotated and moved up and down when the container is shaked by one's hand.
The cleaning container as described above is rather complicated in construction and easy to be broken. In the case where the container is broken, the contact lenses may not be sufficiently cleaned, or may even be damaged by fragments of broken components. In addition, the cleaning container is of a holder type, and is therefore not suitable for cleaning soft contact lenses. The cleaning container has another problem. That is, if the shaking action for cleaning the lenses is not satisfactory, the lens holders are not given rotary motions, but only perform linear movements along the above-indicated slots. In this case, it is difficult to attain a sufficient cleaning effect especially when the contact lenses received in the lens holders have an attitude parallel to the direction of the linear movements of the holders.